Ted Lilly and the Cubs were outplayed by a couple of rookies yesterday in their 2-9 loss to the Reds. Lilly, who is off to a 9.16 ERA start (and whose troubles Mike recently discussed), pitched six innings to strike out six while giving up five runs, six hits, and three walks. On the other hand, Cincinnati’s rookie starter Edinson Vólquez went five innings to strike out seven, walk four, and give up four hits, while holding Chicago to a run. Joey Votto, the Reds’ rookie first baseman, drove in over half of Cincinnati’s runs with a three-RBI double and a two-run home run. He’s hitting .351 to start the season, and has two home runs and seven RBI in the last three days.
Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fukudome, who had been leading the Cubs with their .393 and .353 averages, respectively, going into the game, combined for one hit and five strikeouts in ten at-bats.
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1 Greg // Apr 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Last season I drafted Lilly in a late round (mainly because I’m always on the lookout for a decent AL starter who goes to the NL). He started out fine, but then he had three terrible outings in a row (I think it was mid to late May or thereabouts). In any case, I dropped him.
In hindsight, I made a bad move because at the time I dropped him, his WHIP was still below 1.20. So the lesson learned was to never drop a pitcher whose WHIP is still below 1.20 after three straight “bad” outings unless an injury can be verified.
This year, I again drafted Lilly in a late round. However, I did drop him right before this last outing. My reasoning this time was that his WHIP was terrible and both he and his pitching coach were at a loss for his sudden lack of velocity.
I don’t know. I hope he turns it around, but we’ll see.
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